War and Misrule (1307-1399). Various

      1. Amongst other things it was alleged; first that Hugh Spenser the son, being on a time angry and displeased with the King, sought to ally and confederate himself with the lord Gifford of Brimsfield, and the lord Richard Gray, to have constrained and forced the King by strong hand to have followed his will and pleasure.

      2. Secondly, it was alleged, that the said Spensers as well the father as the son, had caused the King to ride into Gloucestershire, to oppress and destroy the good people of his land, contrary to the form of the great charter.

3. Thirdly, that where the Earl of Hereford and the lord Mortimer of Wigmore, had gone against one Llewelyn Bren, who had raised a rebellion against the King in Glamorganshire, while the lands of the Earl of Gloucester were in the King's hands, the same Llewelyn yielded himselfe to the said earl, and to the Lord Mortimer, who brought him to the King, upon promise that he should have the King's pardon, and so the King received him. But after that the said Earl and lord Mortimer were out of the land, the Spensers taking to them royal power, took the said Llewelyn and led him into Cardiff, where after that the said Hugh Spenser the son had his purparty[4] of the said Earl of Gloucester's lands, he caused the said Llewelyn to be drawn, headed and quartered, to the discredit of the King, and of the said Earl of Hereford and Lord Mortimer, yea and contrary to the laws and dignity of the imperial crown.

      4. Fourthly, the said Spensers counselled the King to forejudge Sir Hugh Audley, son to the lord Hugh Audley, and to take into his hands his castles and possessions. They compassed also to have attainted the lord Roger D'Amorie, that thereby they might have enjoyed the whole earldom of Gloucester.

      FOOTNOTES:

[4] = Share, part.

POPULAR FEELING ABOUT THE EARL OF LANCASTER'S DEATH (1322).

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      Source.—Henry Knighton's Chronicle (Rolls Series), 426–427.

      The Earl therefore having died for the sake of Justice, Church, and State, as it seemed to the people, crowds hurried from all parts with gifts of offerings in order to show honour and reverence to the body of the Earl according to his desert, and they ceased not until the King, aroused by the Despensers, sent armed men to prevent them from entering into the church, and ordered, under pain of imprisonment, that no one should go into the church to offer honour or reverence to the body. And when the people saw that they were prevented from entering the church by the royal power, they turned the seat of their devotion to the place where the Earl had died, and were rushing thither in greater numbers (for which cause the more intense severity of the King was directed against the pilgrims), until the soil of all the field was moved away, and a church was built there with chaplains serving God and by no means poorly endowed. … It is to be remarked that all those who consented to the death of the Earl afterwards finished by a shameful death. First of all the King himself; his two brothers, namely Thomas Earl Marshall and Edmund Earl of Kent, both of whom had been raised and promoted at the instance of the said Earl of Lancaster; the Earl Warrenne; the Earl of Arundell; Lord Hugh Despenser the father, and Lord Hugh the son; the Earl of Richmond; the Earl of Pembroke; Lord Aylmer de Valence; but among them there was not one who ended life honourably, neither them nor any of their adherents.

THE REVOCATION OF THE ORDINANCES (1322).

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      Source.—Statutes at Large (ed. 1762), i. 372.

      Since our lord the King Edward, son of King Edward, the 16th day of March in the third year of his reign, to the honour of God and for the good of himself and his realm granted to the prelates, earls and barons of his realm that they should choose certain persons from among the prelates, earls and barons and other loyal men whom it should seem meet to call to them, in order to ordain and establish the estate of the household of our lord the King and of his realm according to right and reason and in such manner that their ordinances should be made to the honour of God and to the honour and benefit of holy church and to the honour of the said King and his benefit and to the benefit of his people according to right and reason and the oath which our said lord the King made at his Coronation, and the Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and the prelates, earls and barons chosen for that purpose made such ordinances which began: "Edward by the grace of God, etc." … which ordinances our said lord the King caused to be rehearsed and examined at his Parliament at York, three weeks from Easter in the 15th year of his reign, by the prelates, earls and barons among whom were most of the said ordainers who were then alive, and by the commons of the realm summoned thither by his command. And because it was found by this examination in the said Parliament, that by those things which had been ordained, the true power of our said lord the King was restrained in many ways contrary to the due embellishment of his true lordship and injurious to the estate of the crown; and moreover that in times past by such ordinances and purveyances made by subjects over the true power of the ancestors of our lord the King, troubles and wars had arisen in the realm by which the land had been emperilled; it was agreed and established in the said Parliament by our lord the King and by the said prelates, earls and barons and all the commonalty of the realm, in this Parliament assembled, that everything ordained by the said ordainers and contained in the said Ordinances for future should cease and lose for ever all force, virtue and effect, the statutes and establishments duly made by our lord the King and his ancestors before the said ordinances obtaining in their force, and that henceforth, at all time, any manner of ordinances or purveyances made by the subjects of our lord the King or his heirs, by whatever power or commission this may be done, over the true power of our lord the King or his heirs or against the estate of our lord the King or of his heirs or contrary to the estate of the Crown, shall be null and of no manner of value or force. But the matters which are to be established for the estate of our lord the King and his heirs and for the estate of the realm and of the people shall be treated, accorded and established in Parliaments by our lord the King, and by the consent of the prelates, earls and barons and the commonalty of the realm, according as it hath been heretofore accustomed.

THE MURDER OF THE KING (1327).

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      Source.—Christopher Marlowe's Edward the Second (1592).

      Act V., Scene 5.

      Scene: In Berkeley Castle.

      (Matrevis and Gurney having received the Bishop of Hereford's well-known cryptic message, through the hands of Lightborn, a creation of Marlowe's own mind, the King is called up from the dungeon.)

      King Edward. And there in mire and puddle, have I stood

       This ten days' space; and lest that I should sleep,

       One plays continually upon a drum;

       They give me bread and water, being a King;

       So that for want of sleep and sustenance

       My mind's distempered and my body's numbed,

       And whether I have limbs or no I know not.

       O, would my blood dropp'd out from every vein,

       As doth this water from my tattered robes!

       Tell Isabel, the Queen, I look'd not thus,

       When for her sake I ran at tilt in France,

       And there unhors'd the Duke of Cleremont.

       Lightborn. O, speak no more, my lord! this breaks my heart.

       Lie on this bed, and rest yourself awhile.